


rock the boat

by rosielibrary



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Mystery Trio, POV Nonhuman
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2018-12-04
Packaged: 2019-09-06 21:27:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16840741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosielibrary/pseuds/rosielibrary
Summary: merperson!reader and mystery trio stan n ford! under the seeeeea(word of warning: this fic is from 2015 and unedited!)





	rock the boat

The scientist is quiet, while his brother is loud, you note to yourself. Polar opposites in everything but appearance, with their almost identical faces, save for the former wearing thick, square glasses and the latter constantly adorning a wide, mischievous smirk when he glances at you from inside the boat.

Humans are odd, you think to yourself. Though, on the other hand, humans probably thought the same about Keepers.

Well, to be more specific, the Lake Keeper; you watched the lake of Gravity Falls, making sure the fish were never too over-fished and that the creatures that wanted to stay hidden were never found. Swimming and controlling the murky water came effortlessly to Lake and River Keepers, and you had a lot of practice, keeping the Gobblewonker under wraps from the townspeople. He was just shy, that was all. And people-hungry, so you figured the humans didn’t need to know about that just yet.

Today’s two brothers are no different, of course. They call each other Ford and Lee, and you couldn’t tell one from the other when you swam up to the side of their boat. Both of them are handsome young men, but almost all humans were, regardless of whatever they appeared to be. They fascinate you, but you had a job to do.

So, keeping to schedule, a small wave or three start rocking their boat.

Lee (you guessed, anyways) immediately grabs a long, wooden stick, ready to hit something if it came above the surface. Ford (the one with glasses) looked somewhat ill as he wrote in a small, red book, chewing on the tip of the pen. You laugh, sending up a stream of bubbles at his side, and he looks down into the water— but you’re already under the boat, away from his prying eye. A fish or two watch from a few feet away, and you keep the boat moving from side to side, casually moving it away from where the Gobblewonker slept.

The brothers are quarreling above your head but you don’t pay any notice, making their boat start turning in circles when they try to use their oars to paddle back to where they were. You manage to snatch one of their oars and send it flying down across the lake, where they would probably never get it back.

What you didn’t count on, however, was Lee dunking his head underwater and catching you in the act.

He gasps and goes back to his brother, alerting him that there’s a “mermaid” under their boat. Mermaids lived in the ocean, not the lake. Silly.

As soon as he finishes his sentence you use all your strength to flip their boat to one side, toppling both of them into the lake. Lee points at you and you’re about to turn around and swim away, but their large net (that smelt vaguely of Forest Keepers, which makes your stomach turn) had fallen in the water with them, and they use that to snatch you up.

Ford hands Lee the net and you’re dragged out the water like a fish— and as soon as you lose contact with it, you reach back towards its surface, gasping. He freaks out and yells at his brother, who takes the net back and places the bottom of your body into the lake, which was more than enough.

Your skin took on the color of the water (a light grey-blue, since the sky reflected off it) and you cough into your fins, a string of fern wound around your arm. Plucking it out and struggling slightly in the net, you throw it at Lee’s face, where it sticks to his large forehead with a satisfying splat.

“You really should have known that taking a Lake Keeper from their lake would drain them, you idiots.”

They both seem surprised that you can talk, along with your sudden insult. Lee’s expression turns sour, while Ford looks sheepish.

“Uh, sorry about that. You took us by surprise, that’s all.” He adjusts his glasses atop his large nose and studies you through the net, allowing your body to go further into the water. “What did you say you were?”

“A Lake Keeper,” you repeat, head tilting quizzically as he scrawls it down in his book. “Why? What are you writing down?”

“Poindexter here’s interviewin’ ya,” Lee answers, grinning between you and his brother. “He’ll be askin’ for your seashell phone number next.”

Your what? Whatever Lee meant certainly made Ford turn a bright shade of red, similar to the leaves the Forest Keepers paint on the trees.

“I most definitely won’t be doing that,” he huffs, glancing up at you again. “A Lake Keeper… Fascinating. And you look after the Gravity Falls lake, I’m guessing?”

“Certainly do,” you nod, flicking your wrist and causing a small spurt of water to splash his hand.

“And you can control the water, apparently.” Ford shakes his hand dry and you stare at them for a moment.

“You don’t have normal human hands,” you bluntly point out, staring at the extra finger. “They’re interesting.”

He doesn’t reply, but you can tell on his face he’s uncomfortable talking about them. Lee starts rowing back to shore, muttering about flirting mermaids until you splash him, getting his already messy hair wetter.

“I think you’re intriguing too, Lee. That’s your name, right? And you’re Ford?” You point at each one in turn, both surprised you knew at all.

“Uh, yeah. Well, Stanley and Stanford, technically, but those work too.” Lee rubs the back of his neck, and Ford tilts his head at you, curious.

“What about you? Do you have a name?”

“I’m just Lake Keeper,” you reply with a slight shrug. “I’ve seen people call me lots of different names when I show myself to them, but I don’t have a particular name.”

They give you a human name a few moments after that, and you think about it for a bit, deciding you liked it. What you didn’t tell them— and what they didn’t think you knew— was that you saw they got it from a small child with their name plastered across their fishing hat in bright orange lettering.

It's the thought that counts, after all.


End file.
